Microstructures regularly arranged at a period of a few nm to a few hundred nm can be applied to a technique such as a magnetic recording medium, a semiconductor device, photonic crystal, an antireflection film and an adsorption substrate. These structures can be formed by, e.g., a method of writing patterns on a resist using an electron beam lithography apparatus, an ultraviolet lithography apparatus or the like, or a method using a self-organization phenomenon of a diblock copolymer or particles. Particularly, in pattern forming methods using particles, a projections pattern can be formed using particles easily by etching a protective group. In the projections pattern formed by particles by etching, however, the particles are not bonded to the substrate, with the result that the adhesion of the particles to the substrate is bad and the particles may be removed from the substrate in the subsequent step.
To prevent the above-described problem, there is a prior art method of fixing particles onto a substrate (electrode) using a thermoplastic resin. However, this method causes a problem in which the substrate and the particles are not chemically bonded to each other, but the particles are easily removed from the substrate by heating them after the fixation. To resolve the problem, there is a method of removing an organic constituent and then coating the particles with inorganic materials to suppress movement of the particles. However, this method causes a problem in which a projections pattern formed by the particles is planarized by a coating layer provided on the particles.